Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 363

Existence.

I simply stared at the primordial monster that uttered such a word.

I pondered the meaning behind those words.

It wasn’t calling my name, nor seeing me as a destined being to obstruct it.

Simply, existence.

I felt the perspective of the primordial monster.

A part of providence that humans cannot fathom was looking down upon me.

And.

Whooooooosh!

Time stopped.

Everything moving ceased, and only I and the primordial monster were left, gazing at each other in a frozen world.

And I gradually felt all the surrounding sounds fading away.

The monsters’ roars.

The noises of battle that rang in my ears.

The screams and shouts of people who bled to send me here.

All of that disappeared, and soon, all that remained was a vast silence.

Twitch!

I felt the power of purification rising within me.

Using this, I could suppress the machinations of the primordial monster.

But I didn’t.

I couldn’t explain it exactly, but somehow I knew.

That what was about to happen would never be harmful to me.

Whooooooosh!

Subsequently, light disappeared from the world.

Smell, touch, everything that made up the world disappeared.

It was emptiness.

A world with nothing endlessly unfolded around me.

────Ooooooong!

In that vast emptiness, I felt the presence of something.

I raised my head and looked at that presence.

[So, you finally try to climb up.]

It was the primordial monster.

No, that was just a poor expression in human language.

This being was not something tangible.

It was merely a part of the world’s providence [divine guidance or care].

Where there is birth, there is destruction.

In other words, this vast emptiness was the essence of the primordial monster, the form of destruction.

[Existence.]

[Radiant existence that contains what cannot be contained in a small mortal body.]

[All of this is just a part of the flowing fate.]

[Why do you refuse?]

Destruction asks.

There is no hostility or fear in it.

It was just a question.

A distant being.

Asking a distantly small being.

“Because that is life.”

To existence, as existence.

I offer an answer.

My anger and hatred towards the absurdity of the world, which I had towards the primordial monster, had also disappeared.

There was only purpose.

I and the primordial monster were like lines running parallel.

We were extending in the same way on the same path, but the way we looked and the way we existed were different.

[Behold.]

Whoosh!

In an instant, a huge reverberation occurred in the emptiness.

At the end of the reverberation, an illusion arose.

It was a vast meadow.

There is sky, there is land.

There were humans, there were rabbits and lions, there were plants, and there were tiny insects invisible to the eye.

[In this world full of differences.]

[I will make everything into one complete whole.]

[In me, the world becomes each other from differences.]

The scenery is painted black.

Each different entity soon turns into one form.

[Life too.]

All the pulsating life that ran inside disappeared.

If there is no birth, there is no extinction.

[Death too.]

It was just one complete whole.

A world painted in black, where each became each other.

[Everything is one, the world is in primordial peace.]

Only then do I realize.

That calling this being destruction was just a human-centric thought.

As I said, this was just a providence. A providence that humans could not understand.

[Existence.]

[Not anyone else, but you, existence.]

[You will understand this.]

[Only you…….]

Soon, emptiness unfolded again.

I understood those words.

In a way, even to me who has reached this level, it might not be destruction, but salvation or another world.

The world is constantly changing.

Being born, dying.

Flourishing, declining.

That change was always painful, and in the midst of change, each other’s existence hurts each other.

I knew that fact.

But.

“No, I don’t understand.”

I reach out and point to the emptiness.

At that moment.

In the pitch-black darkness, faint lights flickered and surrounded us.

I look at those lights.

There is the light that my father and mother emitted.

There is the light that the nanny and aunt emitted.

My uncle, my siblings, my friends, my subordinates.

The enemies, the adversaries, the countless beings living in the world emit light.

Colliding, intertwining, sometimes falling apart, sometimes sticking together.

The sea of light, like the Milky Way, that emits and converges, spread out into the emptiness.

“The world you want is peaceful. It’s just peaceful. Because there’s nothing.”

But my world.

Our world was so brilliant.

I captured that brilliance in my eyes.

Our lives are here.

“In comparison, we live. Sometimes fighting, disappearing, being born, flourishing… living various lives.”

Each in their own place.

Each other’s lives are lived.

Because we are different, that life emits countless lights.

Of course, humans are more foolish than they think, so they may sometimes fail, regress, and sicken the world.

But they will surely move forward.

For just a given, short segment of life.

Born into this lonely and empty thing called the world.

To bloom their own light within it.

“How is it? Isn’t it so… beautiful?”

Whoooooosh!

The emptiness soon becomes light.

The light of life, the light emitted by humans, by countless lives.

[That is just a light with a set end.]

[It is a futile light emitted at the end by burning oneself.]

Countless lights poured down from the emptiness.

It was like a meteor shower.

Beings who can only emit light after enduring a long time of solitude and finally burning their bodies.

But…….

Wasn’t that what it was from the beginning?

That’s what life was like.

It was futile and fleeting.

[That… is not the answer.]

[It has a set end, and it is just pain that runs infinitely in the eternal time.]

“Maybe so. But that’s the world.”

For that one moment of brilliance, we navigate the endless solitude called life.

Leaving a short glimmer in the world, even in our own lives that we will soon face.

Each blooming their own potential.

[Existence. We are different.]

I realized that the primordial monster could not understand this.

“Indeed.”

Whooooooosh!

The light, the emptiness.

Began to be sucked into one place.

Soon, we stand on the battlefield again.

The primordial monster is looking down at me.

I was looking up at that primordial monster.

Woong, woong, woong…….

The continuous sound returns, the light returns, the touch and smell return.

“……Woah! Block them!”

“We will win!”

“Don’t back down!”

And, the stopped time began to flow again.

No more voices were heard from the primordial monster.

I no longer thought that conversation was necessary.

───────────!

The cry that burst out from the primordial monster echoed across the battlefield.

The monsters stopped, and the humans sat down.

Kiiiiiiiiing!

In the midst of shock and fear, silence and stillness, only the mournful sword cry of Black Night echoed, as if responding to the monster’s cry.

At this moment when no more conversation is needed.

The two lines that had been running parallel were folded together.

* * *

Jjeoooooooong!

The ground burst open.

It was just from kicking the ground.

The burst clods of earth fell on the ground, leaving large pieces like small hills.

The clash of two beings.

A sword and the body of a being collided.

Goooooooong!

The clash soon created a huge crack.

A huge vortex of light and darkness mixed together arose.

It was sucking in as if to swallow everything, and emitting as if to spew everything out.

The darkness that filled the sky cracked and distorted, and the distorted space exploded, causing a storm in the world.

‘Much has disappeared.’

Swinging Black Night.

I feel the loss of the power of Black Knight that supported me.

In a situation where I can no longer unfold Cheonra [a powerful technique] or Mugeuk [another powerful technique], all that is in my hand is a long sword.

Neither I nor the primordial monster.

The superiority of power was no longer meaningful.

The primordial monster was just a providence, and only I was the being who could stand in its way.

One blow.

Everything that each other had would be decided in one blow.

I slowly closed my eyes in front of it.

-Lee Cheol!

-My youngest……!

-Cheol-ah.

-My lord!

-Patriarch!

Countless echoes dig into my ears.

I reflect on my life.

At the end of the sorrowful secret history between my father and mother.

Passing through the arduous life of my previous life.

Opening my eyes as a baby.

The magic that was passed from my second uncle to my aunt grew me up.

I met Lee Seo-hyun and my siblings, the peers of the cadet corps, Ron, Jang Han, and Serena, and dreamed dreams.

I inherited the will of Lee Gun-seong.

I inherited my father’s will.

I met Anastasia and shared love.

Countless relationships, causality, and destinies pushed me to this place.

Things that would have been impossible if I were alone.

If even a single element was missing, I would not have been standing here.

That’s how I live.

I fight.

The struggle is great and huge, and it was not just something grand.

For the farmer, it is tilling the field.

For the student, it is holding a pen and accumulating knowledge.

For the worker, it is working with sweat and blood.

For the parents, it is raising their children.

In that infinitely repeated life that seems the same, each shines their own life.

All of that was a struggle.

Like the flickering light in the sky.

Each brilliantly shining life is shining even at this moment.

Therefore, let’s live with our chests out and with dignity.

We are born alone in this world, colliding and intertwining with each other, emitting light.

My realization, the life I gained.

All my power, all the relationships that made me stand here.

The light of all those complete things.

Was contained in one sword.

That’s how I swung the sword.

* * *

Looking at the world shining brilliantly, the being thought.

[Perhaps.]

The thought came that all of this might be a providence.

Even the countless erased histories that have repeated destruction under the name of the primordial monster.

Even that small human who finally blocked the destruction at the end.

[This is also part of providence.]

In the flow of the great world, destruction eventually succumbed to life.

I feel that all of this was part of a great flow.

Death and life, the repeating infinite possibilities, may have been the destiny of the world to naturally become like this.

So.

[My end will also be part of natural providence…….]

It could not be called annihilation.

Like the flowing wind.

It was one of the countless lights that disappeared without leaving a trace in the world.

The emptiness, the destruction, the monster… closed its eyes, wrapped in light.

* * *

The world was submerged in light.

Brilliant light spread throughout the world, permeating without a shaded corner.

“Ah…….”

“That is…….”

All the beings on the battlefield saw that light.

A sword swung beyond the light.

They couldn’t speak.

It was so sad, joyful, beautiful, and also hideous.

It made me feel such emotions that so many things flickered.

Everything that exists was contained in that one sword.

Whoosh!

Soon, everyone looked up at the sky.

As if dark clouds cleared after a shower,

The light of the dazzling sun began to shine on the ground, cutting through the darkness.

The sky that the primordial monster had covered soon began to regain its color.

Koo-oong!

Is the world wailing?

A huge vibration spreads throughout the ground.

The huge darkness scatters and disappears like dust.

People looked straight ahead.

There was a man there.

With his sword drooping, he was quietly looking at the empty field.

And.

“Good job.”

At that moment, the black sword that the man was holding scattered with the blowing wind, as if it had done its job.

As it scattered point by point, the black auras that filled the ground were also wrapped in light and scattered into the distant sky.

The man turns around.

A man with black hair and yellow eyes reminiscent of the sunset.

All the beings in place realized.

It was over.

All the fighting was over.